


SSPB-009: The One Where Alya Goes Too Far

by StellarStylus



Series: StellarStylus Plot Bunny farm [9]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alya Césaire Bashing, Alya Salt, Angry Alya Césaire, Angst, Bullying, Chloé Bourgeois Redemption, Evil Lila Rossi, Hurt/Comfort, Lila Rossi Bashing, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Deserves Better, POV Alya Césaire, Sabrina Raincomprix Needs Love, Sabrina Raincomprix Redemption, Salt, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2020-04-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:26:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23697706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StellarStylus/pseuds/StellarStylus
Summary: Plot bunny one-shot, up for adoption. Alya was willing to believe Lila and do anything for her, even if it meant going too far to silence Marinette's criticisms. And unfortunately, the aspiring journalist did just that, and now she would pay the price for it. Alya Salt, Hurt Marinette, Lila Bashing. Rated for teenage bullying and violence, just to be safe.
Series: StellarStylus Plot Bunny farm [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1553272
Comments: 53
Kudos: 442
Collections: Lila Anon Support Group





	SSPB-009: The One Where Alya Goes Too Far

**Author's Note:**

  * For [neonpolitann](https://archiveofourown.org/users/neonpolitann/gifts), [Cyn_Finnegan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cyn_Finnegan/gifts).



> DISCLAIMER: I don't own Miraculous; that belongs to Thomas Astruc, ZagToons and Method Animation.
> 
> NOTES: This was mainly inspired by "A Better Place" by kunabkyu, and a huge shout-out goes to Cyn_Finnegan, author of "The Cause & Effect of Lies," who helped me with trying to figure out how the French judicial system would handle juveniles for something like this. Thanks to both of them. :) And please check out their aforementioned stories, too! ;)

_Well, girl, you've really screwed up this time,_ she thought to herself.

Alya Césaire sat in the local detention center… _for physically assaulting Marinette Dupain-Cheng._

Yup, she was so screwed.

Alya could just see what happened in her mind's eye, replaying every moment of the worst mistake of her young life…

She and Marinette got into an argument about the validity of Lila's claims about the Italian girl's personal connection to the fashion industry and her own share of original fashion ideas, and Marinette looked furious. The raventte and had turned around muttered something under her breath — Alya couldn't even make out a word of it, she just assumed it was something nasty — and then Alya lashed out in blind anger.

The result was Alya losing her temper and then grabbing Marinette by her collar, swinging her around, and punching her in the face as hard as she could.

Which made Marinette stumble and fall down the front steps of the school.

Which then made Marinette hit her head on the ground at the bottom.

Which then got everyone else's attention.

Which then made Alya belatedly realize how maybe, just maybe, she'd gone too far.

It was sheer coincidence that she happened to land at the feet of Chloé and Sabrina as both other girls were walking by and talking about something between themselves, but what truly defied belief for Alya was how Chloé looked shocked at what happened to Marinette.

And just to further boggle Alya's mind, Chloé — _Chloé, of all people,_ who refused to get her hands (or any part of her body) dirty — actually got down on her knees on the dirty ground to help Marinette and check her over.

(Just a week ago, Chloé had sincerely apologized to the rest of the class and promised to change her ways — or as sincerely as she could with her ingrained attitude — but Alya didn't believe it for a second. Nor did Alya believe it when Sabrina backed her up by giving her own apology to the rest of class for all the things she'd done as Chloé's lackey. Even when Chloé had approached Alya and asked if she could do anything to atone for her past behavior, Alya had used some choice words to not-so-subtly tell the blonde and her ginger sidekick to get lost and leave her alone.)

Marinette just sat there, looking stunned, before she looked back up at where Alya was standing at the top of the steps—

( _I can't believe you just did that to me,_ those sad bluebell eyes seemed to say.)

—and promptly broke down crying, right there on the sidewalk.

It wasn't just quiet sniffles; it was loud screaming and crying, one which got the attention of everyone else on the street. She was having a total breakdown. It sounded like the wailing and crying of someone who had lost a loved one.

Whispers broke out behind her, and Alya watched as Chloé tried and failed to get Marinette to calm down. After a surprising amount of patience on the blonde brat's part, Chloé and Sabrina helped Marinette get to her feet and gently guided her down the street to her parents' bakery, with the trembling ravenette sobbing every step of the way.

Alya felt the burning anger ebb and horror fill in to replace it as she realized what she'd just done.

Lila was gone, although Alya thought she saw her long mane of brown hair flying as she scampered off.

The rest of her class was looking at her aghast, slowly backing away as if she carried some contagious disease.

And then there was Nino, gaping at her like he'd never seen Alya before in his life… before grimacing and stepping back from her.

What followed was a blur as Alya allowed herself to be escorted to the Headmaster's office, and then escorted off the premises. It was as if she'd look down at the floor in Principal Damocles' office, and then looked up to find herself in a local detention center.

It was, without a doubt, the most humiliating and all-around worst experience of Alya's young life.

And all that was yesterday. She was still here in the detention center, and the sound of the heavy door slamming shut was still ringing in her ears when she woke up this morning.

Nothing sounded louder than when the door had slammed shut, leaving her all alone.

But even before that horrible day yesterday was over, rumors were already flying, all of them hinting that Marinette had suffered a breakdown.

The most common rumor Alya had heard was that Marinette had torn apart her own room in a fit of rage, shredding and destroying everything she made for her friends and classmates and cursing up such a storm that it had made both her parents go red in the face. She'd also heard other rumors, ranging from the fairly plausible (that Chloé had been forced to call in her own personal family physician to check up on Marinette, because the injured and traumatized girl utterly refused to leave her house to go anywhere like the doctor's office) to the completely outlandish (that Marinette was going to move to China to live with her great-uncle the world-famous chef, just to get away from everyone here).

…Actually, Alya considered Marinette moving to China to live with her relatives there _less_ outlandish than the Bourgeois brat calling in her own personal physician to help her, but whatever.

And then there was that one disturbing rumor that Marinette had tried to kill herself…

Alya shuddered when she thought about it.

 _Ah, but you didn't seem too concerned about stuff like that when you were beating the hell out of that poor girl, did you?_ a nasty little voice in her head jeered.

She'd had a lot of time to think about it… and now she wished more than anything that she could take back everything she'd said and done to Marinette ever since Lila first showed up.

At this point, Alya would have gladly deleted every last trace of her beloved Ladyblog from existence and sworn off blogging for the rest of her life, if it would fix everything.

But it was too late now. Nobody could change the past.

Alya's parents had already visited her, and they'd made their displeasure known. Her father had growled like his favorite panther at the zoo, but her mother _shrieked_ about it.

Even now, their words still rang in their eyes like when they first shouted it: _How could you do this… she was your best friend… this is not how we raised you… you've embarrassed our entire family… you should be ashamed of yourself…_ on and on it went.

From the sounds of it, both of them were hanging on to their respective jobs by a thread.

And Alya really felt wretched when she realized that she had not only endangered both of her parents' jobs, but it also impacted their ability to support their other three children, Alya's sisters.

Looking back on it now, Alya was surprised that none of the other people in the building, officers or detainees, complained about the noise.

She honestly didn't know whether to be relieved or upset when they finally left.

But perhaps the worst part of all this was how Lila got to just walk away from it.

She could almost hear the Italian girl's voice in her head right now: _It's not my fault, I didn't tell that girl to assault her former best friend! I didn't make her do it!_

And the worst part was, that would have been a valid argument on Lila's part. Attacking Marinette like that had been entirely Alya's decision.

Entirely her fault.

She sat there for God-only-knew how long, lost in her thoughts and stewing in her anger and her guilt…

The ominous sound of her cell's door made her snap to attention.

Alya looked up to see her parents return with a guard as well as a lawyer.

She was being formally charged for assaulting Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

Alya sat there numbly as they explained everything to her and what would happen next.

She barely listened to them, unable to stop thinking about how she had made the greatest and most horrible mistake of her life.

And it would haunt her for every day after that for the rest of her life.

**Author's Note:**

> AUTHOR'S NOTES: …Yeah, this one went to a dark place. I'd seen a few other fanfics where Alya REALLY believes Lila's lies and gets abusive towards Marinette… either verbally or even physically. I guess I wanted to explore what would happen if things went too far. Consider this plot bunny an "evil twin" of sorts to my very first published plot bunny, where Alya knew about Marinette as Ladybug from the start and stuck by her side. I first started this one months ago, but only just finished it.
> 
> Also, while I like "Chloé Bourgeois Redemption" as much as the next person, I just want to point out that Marinette is NOT automatically friends with her now, like in so many other such stories; Chloé helping Marinette get home after that was merely another step on the long road to redemption. (I'd already written a lot of another scene showing the assault and aftermath from Chloé's perspective, where she and Sabrina help bring Marinette back home and explain what happened to Tom and Sabine, but it's still incomplete and I didn't want the "Chloé Bourgeois Redemption" aspect to overtake the "Alya Goes Too Far" narrative.)
> 
> And just to be clear: NO, Marinette didn't try to kill herself here, THAT was just a rumor.
> 
> So, does anyone want me to make this a full story, or maybe run with it themselves?


End file.
